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julien bek

T3 · host / generalist

Partner at Sequoia Capital based in London (3 years), previously at Accel (Excel) and Atomico (Tomico); focuses on early-stage AI, infrastructure, and application investments; known for founder assessment frameworks and conviction-driven investing.

63 calls·26 names·83% bull·last heard last month·20VC
track record

no scored calls yet — needs a stated position or a categorical verdict, with a matured window vs SPY

top calls

highest conviction · one per company
1sthigh conviction
$CLICKHOUSEClickHouseposition

ClickHouse is a core infrastructure bet that will compound across AI and non-AI companies

ClickHouse is signing up the next generation of software companies outside traditional tech (e.g., car washes, auction companies in Iowa) — this expansion into the real economy creates a sticky, compounding business that complements AI-native adoption.

20VC2026-08episode →
2ndhigh conviction
$SIERRASierraposition

Sierra proves autopilot model: selling outcomes not tools in customer support

Sierra sells customer support resolution outcomes at 1/5th the cost of human agents — starting as copilot but quickly moving to autopilot where AI runs entire workflow end-to-end and collects fee from outcome, not tool. This is the $1 vs $6 services-to-software shift.

20VC2026-08episode →
3rdhigh conviction
$REVOLUTRevolutposition

Julien missed Revolut seed but personally invested via SPV; mom made 500x+

Julien missed Revolut as first VC investment (lost to Index/Balderton) but personally invested via SPV at ~$200M valuation; now worth $100B+. His mother invested 50/50 and retired at 74 — best investor in the family.

20VC2026-08episode →

most discussed · click a bar to filter

  • $SIERRA
  • $OCTAR
  • $REVOLUT
  • $CURSOR
  • $TRADE-REPUBLIC

recurring themes

  • AI Economics & Business Models5
  • Venture Capital4
  • AI Infrastructure4
  • AI Applications3
  • Brain-Computer Interfaces3
63 total
$MERCOR
Mercor
MEDjulien bek·20VC·last month·Julien Bek on Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone & Alfred Lin | What Sequoia Sees in Founders
Mercor executes tranche rounds where Sequoia gets in early and locks ownership at same price
Mercor (Brendan's company) demonstrates the power of tranche rounds — Sequoia invests at one price, company inflects, next round at same price locks in ownership. This is a supply/demand dynamic where special companies command premium follow-on from other investors.
"Brandon from Mercor... he went like quite viral with this... where basically he said like oh no one talks and I'm not dissing Brandon here like it's it's true um like people don't…"
21:55
$UIPATH
···
UiPath
LOWjulien bek·20VC·last month·Julien Bek on Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone & Alfred Lin | What Sequoia Sees in Founders
UiPath pitched same day as Revolut in 2015 East London basement
Historical anecdote: UiPath (Daniel Dines) and Revolut (Nikolai) both pitched seed/Series A on same day in East London basement — extraordinary concentration of EV that Julien missed both.
"One of them is Nikolai from Revolute. Um, another one of them is Daniel Dyn from UiPath. Um, think about the concentration of EV that was just in that that that day"
82:25
$CLICKHOUSE
ClickHouse
HIGHjulien bek·20VC·last month·Julien Bek on Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone & Alfred Lin | What Sequoia Sees in Founders· position
ClickHouse is a core infrastructure bet that will compound across AI and non-AI companies
ClickHouse is signing up the next generation of software companies outside traditional tech (e.g., car washes, auction companies in Iowa) — this expansion into the real economy creates a sticky, compounding business that complements AI-native adoption.
"in the case of really we had a board meeting recently and they have this thing they called um project Iowa um and it's basically appealing to companies uh outside of tech and we t…"
63:55
$SIERRA
Sierra
HIGHjulien bek·20VC·last month·Julien Bek on Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone & Alfred Lin | What Sequoia Sees in Founders· position
Sierra proves autopilot model: selling outcomes not tools in customer support
Sierra sells customer support resolution outcomes at 1/5th the cost of human agents — starting as copilot but quickly moving to autopilot where AI runs entire workflow end-to-end and collects fee from outcome, not tool. This is the $1 vs $6 services-to-software shift.
"we have a company called Sierra. They're an AI for customer support and customer experience... they say well we will uh resolve those tickets for let's say a fifth of the price an…"
68:35
$OCTAR
Octar
MEDjulien bek·20VC·last month·Julien Bek on Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone & Alfred Lin | What Sequoia Sees in Founders· position
Octar supercharges software implementation with AI, 10x leverage per person
Octar helps large software vendors' implementation teams — one person can now do the job of 10, but human judgment remains in the loop. This validates the services-to-software transition where AI amplifies rather than replaces humans.
"you and I are investors um in a company called octar um that's an AI for software implementation and um they work with some of the largest um software vendors where they basically…"
71:15
$REVOLUT
Revolut
HIGHjulien bek·20VC·last month·Julien Bek on Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone & Alfred Lin | What Sequoia Sees in Founders· position
Julien missed Revolut seed but personally invested via SPV; mom made 500x+
Julien missed Revolut as first VC investment (lost to Index/Balderton) but personally invested via SPV at ~$200M valuation; now worth $100B+. His mother invested 50/50 and retired at 74 — best investor in the family.
"I lost my first investment two weeks into the job uh when I started venture long time ago. Um and that company was revolute... we entered at 200 no 180 200 million and I think the…"
81:55
$RAMP
Ramp
HIGHjulien bek·20VC·last month·Julien Bek on Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone & Alfred Lin | What Sequoia Sees in Founders· position
Ramp expanding into real economy (Project Iowa) signals durable compounding
Ramp's fastest-growing segment is non-tech companies (car washes, auction companies in Iowa) — crossing from AI taste-makers to the real economy is a critical turning point for durability and massive TAM.
"in the case of really we had a board meeting recently and they have this thing they called um project Iowa um and it's basically appealing to companies uh outside of tech and we t…"
63:55
$CURSOR
Cursor
HIGHjulien bek·20VC·last month·Julien Bek on Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone & Alfred Lin | What Sequoia Sees in Founders
Cursor is best agent company outside Sequoia — first to understand post-training depth
Cursor (Anysphere) is the best AI agent company outside Sequoia: in the most important market (coding), they were first to realize post-training models could go deeper into the stack beyond wrappers.
"The best agent company outside of Sequoia. So the best company uh agent company outside Sequoia um is probably cursor um one they're in one of the most important markets um but se…"
78:55
$TRADE-REPUBLIC
Trade Republic
MEDjulien bek·20VC·last month·Julien Bek on Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone & Alfred Lin | What Sequoia Sees in Founders
Julien missed Trade Republic seed, wrongly assumed Revolut would crush them
Julien passed on Trade Republic seed thinking Revolut would dominate, but they barely compete and both built amazing businesses — failure to see non-winner-take-all market and category size underestimation.
"I think probably Trade Republic. Um, so we're in business with Trade Republic, but I looked at the seed before I joined Seoia and I remember uh telling the founder Christian. Um,…"
79:25
$INEFFABLE
Ineffable
MEDjulien bek·20VC·last month·Julien Bek on Lessons from Don Valentine, Doug Leone & Alfred Lin | What Sequoia Sees in Founders· position
Sequoia backed Ineffable, a UK AI lab pursuing novel architecture by N-of-1 founder David Silver
The only way to invest in a truly novel AI lab is backing an N-of-1 founder pursuing a completely different architecture — David Silver (ex-DeepMind) is going after a very different architecture that, if it works, is completely massive because they're not doing the same thing better but being different.
"the only way you invested in a truly novel company is either if you back an N of one founder um you know recently we we backed a company called ineffable here in UK was um a large…"
11:45
9
Venture Capitaltailwind
Conviction beats consensus: best fund returns from highest-conviction sponsors
Sequoia data across decades shows best investments always from sponsors with highest conviction, not consensus. SpaceX had a 1/10 vote but sponsor forced partner visits. Airbnb was controversial (air mattresses). Conviction must persist post-investment (keep investing). Partnership encourages fierce debate (devil's advocate, premortems) but sponsor decides — politics removed by transparency.
9
AI Agentstailwind
Agents are the new customer: 1000x agent traffic in 5 years per Cloudflare
Agent traffic already at parity with human traffic (Cloudflare data); in 5 years will be 1000x. This creates a parallel agent economy requiring bits-perfect platforms (not pixel-perfect UIs). Agents have biases from pre/post-training (favor Cloudflare, Vercel) — understanding these biases is the new SEO/AEO. Winners will optimize for agent decision-making, not human UI.
9
AI Agentstailwind
Agents become primary customers: 1000x traffic shift demands bits-perfect platforms
Cloudflare data shows agent traffic will exceed human traffic 1000x in 5 years; companies must build for agent decision-making (biases, pre-training data) not human UI, creating new categories like AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).
9
AI Applicationstailwind
Services-as-software: next trillion-dollar company sells outcomes not tools
AI enables selling outcomes directly (autopilot) vs tools (copilot). Customer support already $1B+ ARR in autopilot (Sierra). Typical services:software spend ratio is 6:1 — capturing the $6 services budget with software-like margins. But human judgment remains in loop: start with lots of humans/little AI, end with lots of AI/little humans. Not full replacement.
9
AI Applicationstailwind
Autopilot category emerges: selling outcomes not tools, capturing $6 services spend
AI moves from copilot (tools helping humans) to autopilot (AI delivering outcomes end-to-end); customer support is first $1B ARR autopilot category (e.g., Sierra charges 1/5 human cost per ticket); the $1 software vs $6 services ratio flips as AI captures services revenue.
9
AI Economics & Business Modelstailwind
Services-as-software: $6 services spend per $1 tool spend shifts to outcome-based autopilot models
AI enables selling outcomes (closed books, resolved tickets) not tools, capturing the 6x larger services budget; customer support already at $1B+ ARR in autopilot phase, expanding to other verifiable domains.
9
AI Applicationstailwind
Next trillion-dollar company will be software masquerading as service selling outcomes
AI enables shift from selling tools ($1) to selling outcomes ($6 services spend). Customer support (Sierra) already proves autopilot model: AI runs full workflow, charges per resolution. Human judgment remains but shifts from execution to oversight — 'judgment of today becomes intelligence of tomorrow.'
8
AI Bubble / Capex Debatetailwind
Human brains bad at exponentials; $1B valuations become new Series A
Outcome sizes are exponentially larger than historical norms; $1B valuation may be the new Series A price with same blunt multiple to $20B outcomes; picking is harder due to volume but conviction on exponential trajectory matters more than entry price.